Appellate Law

FLDS Children Going Home

By D. Todd Smith

In In re Steed (No. 03-08-00235-CV) (orig. proceeding) (per curiam), the Third Court of Appeals has conditionally granted the petition for writ of mandamus and vacated the district court's order placing more than 400 FLDS children in state custody.  The Supreme Court of Texas Blog, the ABA Journal, and other media outlets are reporting additional details.

Chief Justice Law, Justice Pemberton, and Justice Waldrop made the decision, but we don't know who wrote the opinion.  It's difficult to criticize deciding this case per curiam, given its  highly politicized and controversial subject matter and the national publicity it has received.

Update:  On closer examination, the Third Court's ruling in In re Steed does not purport to return all the FLDS children in CPS custody, only those belonging to the 38 relators in that proceeding.  The court reached the same result in a related case, In re Bradshaw (No. 03-08-00298-CV), also issued per curiam, which involved three additional relators.

After these orders, however, CPS would presumably change course on all the affected children.

A third case involving three more relators, In re Jessop (No. 03-08-00236-CV), remains pending.

Full post as published by Texas Appellate Law Blog on May 22, 2008 (boomark / email).